Lubaina Himid wins Turner Prize for ‚uncompromising‘ approach to race relations
At 63, she is the oldest artist to receive the Tate’s prestigious £25,000 award
HANNAH MCGIVERN
6th December 2017 12:13 GMT
via The Art Newspaper
Lubaina Himid has become the oldest artist ever to win the Tate’s Turner Prize, at the age of 63. The DJ and musician Goldie presented this year’s £25,000 award at a ceremony in Hull last night (5 December)—the first since the museum did away with the upper age limit of 50 for shortlisted artists (in place since 1991). Himid was chosen ahead of Hurvin Anderson, Andrea Büttner and Rosalind Nashashibi, who each took home £5,000.
“This year we opened the prize up to artists of all ages, recognising that breakthroughs can happen at any point in an artistic career,” said the Tate’s director, Maria Balshaw. Established in 1984, the annual award is aimed at UK-based artists who have had an outstanding exhibition in the previous year. In her acceptance speech, Himid thanked her supporters during the “wilderness years” and described her win as “a complete shock”. In 2017 Himid had solo shows at Modern Art Oxford and Spike Island in Bristol and participated in Nottingham Contemporary’s The Place is Here survey of 1980s black artists. She has only recently been represented by a gallery, Hollybush Gardens, which also represents Büttner.
